Eclipse Phase: Singularity

Clean Up on the Twinkie Aisle

Having worked through the list and discovered that each item was a reference to an increasingly specific location, the team was left holding a decorative sewing box. While Chocko, Dredd, and Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto searched the Tudor-style house for supplies, SparkleFlash expressed his rage by taking a plasma torch to the bedding. Try as he might, the mattress simply would not sustain a flame.

Consulting a copy of the map that SparkleFlash had downloaded from their search of the central administrative spire, the team decided to make straight for the nearest exit, with the idea that they would search for a vehicle there for the anticipated 400km drive to the nearest edge of the Titan Quarantine Zone. If no vehicle could be found there, they would simply make their way around the outside, rather than risk a repeat of any of the earlier encounters.

It also occurred to the team that they should gathers some supplies, while SparkleFlash had no issues, the rest of the team was going to need food and water. So they made was expected to be a brief stop at a Greenwal’s corner drugstore that was along their path towards the exit.

Knowing that Twinkies have a long shelf-life, the team made a beeline for the snack-aisle at the rear of the store, including for some reason SparkleFlash. Not too long into their pantry raid, the party was beset by a couple of Shifters, similar to the “young girl” they had encountered in the abandoned house. Each of the Shifters appeared to be nearly identical to the previous “young girl” and just like before, the Shifters used their liquid metal ability to shape their hands into wicked knifes.

Finally, one of their attackers fell and Chocko once again turned toward the door. Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto was still fending off his two attackers at the rear of the store, when two more Shifter appeared in the doorway blocking Chocko escape. With Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto surrounded at the rear of the store and Chocko surrounded at the front of the store, the Shifters unexpected changed tactics. Previously, they had been content to simply shape their hands into weapons and made melee attacks, but now with their quarry surrounded, the Shifters now rushed the remaining team members. Separately, both Chocko and Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto found themselves on the receiving end of an exsurgent dog-pile. Having pinned their adversaries, the Shifters then proceeded to inexorably engulf their prey.

Etu Etui

Having spent the night holed up in order to heal from their wounds, the party awoke to find everything seemingly okay, except there was no reply from the Guardian Angel drone that had been stationed to patrol the roof. A review of the feed revealed only that the drone suddenly went off line in the middle of the night. Searching the roof, they found the battered shell with evidence that it had been attacked and bitten.

While on the roof, they took the opportunity to take a view towards the center of town, a central spire surrounded by a perimeter park. The team was somewhat relieved to see that the path ahead was mostly through open ground with plenty of time to see danger approaching.

Pressing on with Dredd dragging Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto behind the party made their way to the central spire. SparkleFlash was lucky enough to find a functional information kiosk, where he was able to do a search on the map against the list they had been provided. He found a match for “Greenwood” which was a neighborhood to the East. Within the Greenwood neighborhood was an intersection of Petrovich Boulevard and Bandyopadiayah Avenue. This gave them a location to next search, but before going there the party decided to raid the administrative facilities of the central spire.

In the pharmacy, they were able to restock on some critical medicines. They also found a security weapons lockers, where they were able to pick up some EMP grenades, heavy rail pistols, and some survival utility belts. “Shopping” completed, the party set off again across the perimeter park, this time cutting across some sports activity fields. Open spaces being kind, they encountered no new threats.

No new threats at least until they made their way back into the built up area between the park and their target. Entering a courtyard in a residential area, SparkleFlash spotted a group of wild dogs fighting over scraps. The party decided that the were was no need to engage in unnecessary encounters and so turned to leave. Unfortunately the big ape wasn’t so stealthy as the rest and Chocko knocked over a trash can alerting the pack of hungry dogs. Fortutiously, Chocko had just prepared his grenade launcher. Even luckier, despite a generally lack of particular skill with the weapon, he scored a direct hit wiping out the pack. An examination of the remains reveled that they dogs were fighting over a human leg.

Returning to their objective, the party came to the intersection of Petrovich Boulevard and Bandyopadiayah Avenue. It was a residential area, and on each street corner was a large house sitting on a large lot with what once had been a well groomed lawn; a brick house with columns, a clapboard house with many gables, a split level ranch, and a timber frame house with stucco. Recognizing the timber frame and stucco house as being Tudor style, they felt assured that they had discovered the next clue indicated by the list.

Bursting in the front door, they found a house with every evidence indicating that it had been long abandoned. To the right was a study and the to the left was a dinning room. In the dining room they found a large table surrounded by six chairs and a china cabinet in the corner. Turning back to the study, they found a desk, desk chair, built in bookcase and a large leather couch. SparkleFlash then consulted his onboard dictionary and discovered that one of the definitions of Chesterfield was for a particular style of couch. A particular style of couch which matched the style of the recently found couch.

Etui was also discovered to be a french word for a ornate women’s sewing box. No box was in evidence, but a sharp-eyed Chocko noted that one of the cushions was slightly askew. Removing the cushion, a small wood box was discovered.

The small box had an ornate lid and contained needles, thread, a cross-stitch pattern, and a pin-cushion. Nothing of apparent value was in evidence, nor any clue of hidden messages or secret compartments. The team was left to ponder why they were dropped into the middle of the Titan Quarantine Zone with no other instruction but a list of names which lead them to a simple sewing box. What was the reason behind this all?

EMP Madness

The party pushed further into the abandoned city of Underhill, strolling through commercial and retail centers.

Not watching where he was going, Rhet Seyekh stuck his hand into a hive of nano disassemblers. A brief panic ensued, before Teyon Tageta remembered that he had the good fortune to pack an EMP grenade. Teyon Tageta missed his target, but fortuantely “close” does count in hand grenades.

After licking their wounds, the party turned away from their chosen course, blocked by the disassembler swarm, and ventured into a neighboring mixed-use neighborhood. Once their SparkleFlash spotted a fleeing figure. Alerted to the contact, the party decided to investigate. Wandering around the streets and alleys of the neighborhood, they once a gain made visual contact with the fleeing figure. Seeing the figure run into the building, the party pursued.

Peering through the wall with their t-ray emitters, they saw a huddled figure in the corner. Teyon Tageta opened the door to investigate. He saw a waif of a teenage girl huddled in the corner muttering to herself, “your not real, you can’t be real, you are an illusion”.

The party then decided that they would try to herd her into a corner, which they managed to do, and then Rhet Seyekh tackled her and pinned her to the floor. Not appreciating being tackled, the girl began beating on the neo-gorillia, while doing so her hands turned into mallets.

Deciding, “well if that is the way its going to be”, Rhet Seyekh returned the favor and started hitting the girl. The girl eventually managed to scramble out from under Rhet Seyekh. After which, she turned her hands into knives and began stabbing at various members of the party in turn. Noticing that melee was less than effective, the party began attacking the “girl” in a series of escalating attacks; hands, guns, burst fire, and finally full-auto. In the end full-auto did the trick and the liquid-metal girl burt.

Determining that they had suffered significantly at the hands of the exsurgent, the party decided to hole-up for the night and tend to their wounds before proceeding further.

Papa Roach

Having discovered Underhill, the party cautiously approached the entrance to the city, a long winding road up the slope to the base of the mensa’s vertical walls. The cliff face was pierced by a tunnel, which the party followed to a set of thick airlock doors. SparkleFlash attempted unsuccessfully to hack into the door controls, so end the end had to resort to physical coercion in the form of a plasma torch to the hydraulic mechanism. The heavy doors parted by a little bit, but sufficient so that even the Ape (Rhet Seyekh) and the Bruiser (Teyon Tageta) could gain admittance.

They found themselves in an industrial receiving area, with shelves filled with boxed and crated goods destined for citizens long departed. Further exploration didn’t provide much more information or clues, until they finally approached a set of roll-up doors. SparkleFlash restored power to the controls, and the doors rolled up with a great clanking of gears but little fanfare or notice.

The motor courtyard beyond proved to be the loading dock area for a number of low rise warehouses. Exploring the assortment of commercial vehicles around, SparkleFlash determined that they vehicles, although long abandoned, were essentially functional and set about servicing them with the thought they may prove useful in their planned eventual exit.

Leaving SparkleFlash to his own amusement with electrical systems, the remainder of the party, Rhet Seyekh, Teyon Tageta, and Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto probed further into the surrounding area. Exiting the warehouse district they next encountered an industrial area, which was likewise made up of low-lying, one-story buildings. Soon after entering the area, the party noted a distinct chittering noise.

Leaping to action, the group decided to scamper up onto one of the roofs, just ahead a mass of encroaching roaches. Giant, space roaches. The roaches could climb walls well, so the party being atop the roof proved little hinderance. Bringing guns to bare, the party quickly began decimating the bug numbers. But there were a lot of roaches, a whole lot. A few even managed to bite the team, but for the most part their armor proved effective against their attack.

SparkleFlash quickly found a drum that could serve as a container, but first it had to be emptied. Having dumped the oil on the ground, the spunky little Kite morph lifted the barrel to the roof and dove forward in his first attack. He missed. His second attempt left Rhet Seyekh to wonder, “okay, now what do we do with it?” “We don’t know, it was your idea” was the general reply. Buoyed by his success, SparkleFlash leapt once more into the breach and brought his plasma torch to bear upon a fleeing Rad Roach and scoring the last kill of the encounter.

One other thing of note. While on their approach into the city, Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto, as a true Jovian Zealot taking issue with the lifestyle choices of Rhet Seyekh and SparkleFlash, pulled Teyon Tageta aside for a private conference, where he revealed that he was gifted by God with ability to touch other people’s minds and that he wanted to share that link with Teyon Tageta. Not skipping a beat, or showing any concern whatsoever, Teyon Tageta said “Sure.”.

Egg Drop Soup

The soon to be adventuring party had their normal mundane lives interrupted when they were rudely awoken to discover that they were in a drop capsule plummeting toward an uncertain future without any memory of how they came to be in that position. Rhet Seyekh, SparkleFlash, Teyon Tageta, and Taragon “Hamish” Esperanto were also disturbed to learn that all contact with their constant companions their muses was cut-off.

Upon landing, the hatch automatically opened with explosive bolts and the party found themselves to be on Mars, but forbiddingly well within the Titan Quarantine Zone. Fortunately, a search of their capsule revealed that their gear had been packed up along with them, so they did not have to venture into the no-mans-land too ill-equipped. With great relief, they also found that their muses had been restored as well.

No hint was given as to why they were packed up and dropped into the TQZ, but they did find a mysterious list left for them. On Paper!

The party first encountered a “termite mound”. At first they were intrigued, but having a guardian angel drone beset by wild saucers discouraged them from further investigation. Next the party encountered a fractal crop circle. Although apparently inert, SparkleFlash was particularly intrigued and lingered while the rest of the part pressed on.

Eventually the party encountered a settlement built into a mesa with a wide avenue approach. The state of the road made clear that it had not seen use in many years. Deciding to approach, the party first encountered a sort of roadside service facility. While poking around they discovered a large sign that fallen over. Lifting it up to look at the front revealed “The Rotary Club Welcomes You to Underhill”.